


Confusion...

by aljohnson



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: Confusion, Gen, Nuns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-13 00:23:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1205947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aljohnson/pseuds/aljohnson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sister Winifred is fairly sure she isn't being told everything she should know. And how on earth is the Doctor's wife going to run Nonnatus House?</p><p>I still can't name fics convincingly. Sorry.</p><p>Usual Disclaimer - none of the characters are mine, no money is being made, all characters etc are the copyright / IP of one or more of The Estate of Jennifer Worth, Heidi Thomas or Neal Street Productions / the BBC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confusion...

Sister Winifred was confused. 

She had been here now almost six months. She had observed Mrs Turner, the Doctor’s wife, running the ante-natal clinic at the Community Centre, and knew that she acted as a receptionist at his surgery as well. She was plainly very good at administration and appeared to be utterly unflappable. She knew they were praying for her and the Doctor, although Sister Winifred was not privy as to why. Perhaps it was to do with the son and his recovery from Polio? She’d tried to do some rough maths in her head – the Doctor seemed to be a fair bit older than his wife, and she could only conclude that they had got married when she was quite young – how old had she been when the boy had been born?  
But the thing which most confused her now was how on earth Mrs Turner was going to be in any position to run Nonnatus House. It took specialist skills and knowledge, a person who knew how the Order worked, and had an appreciation of the constraints and privileges of religious life. It was plain that there was something she wasn’t aware of, she could feel it whenever anyone spoke to Mrs Turner, see it whenever people watched Mrs Turner enter or leave a room, could see the eyes focusing on her and the Doctor if they were in the same room together, as if their behaviour was being observed and noted. Sister Winifred resolved to speak to someone and find out what was going on.

Sister Winifred decided that none of the other nuns were appropriate to speak to – Sister Julienne didn’t need doubts about Mrs Turner’s suitability, she needed to be able to relax and take care of herself. Sister Evangelina was in a foul mood of late, and Sister Monica Joan seemed to only speak in riddles more and more these days.

Of the nurses, Nurse Franklin seemed much more likely to talk, and Sister Winfred chose a quiet moment that afternoon to speak to the young woman. “Hello Nurse Franklin. Everything all right on your rounds?”

“Yes, thank you. Mrs Goldstein seems to be in the final stages of recovery from her chest infection, which is good, and everyone else is ticking along as they should be” Trixie smiled brightly at the nun.

“I was wondering about something, and I thought you might have an idea” probed the Nun.

“Oh really, what were you wondering about?”

“Well. I mean, I’m going to have to be blunt I’m afraid. How on earth is Mrs Turner going to be able to run this place? I mean, even if it’s only for a couple of weeks, there’s so much to do. How is she ever going to learn everything she needs to know?” 

Trixie gasped. She cast her mind back – had no one really ever said? She thought about it now – when Sister Winifred had arrived it was some time since any of the Sisters from Poplar had been to the Mother House, and she doubted very much that Nuns tended to gossip anyway – there had been a quiet contemplation that day Shelagh had come back from the Sanatorium as, well, Shelagh, not Sister Bernadette, and there had been stoic acceptance when the engagement had been discovered. 

She turned to Sister Winifred, and smiled her brightest smile, “Ah. I had assumed you knew, but I see now that you don’t. I am surprised no-one has told you.” She paused for effect, considering her choice of words very carefully, “Mrs Turner used to be Sister Bernadette. I presumed everyone in Chichester knew?”

Sister Winifred gasped. There had been talk of course, last autumn, and it had been mentioned that Sister Bernadette had chosen to renounce her vows and leave the Order, but no reasons had been discussed, other than a reassurance to all the remaining Sisters, conveyed in correspondence from Sister Julienne, that faith had not been lost, but rather that another path had been revealed.

“Oh. Gosh. I knew that Sister Bernadette had left, but I had no idea that she and Mrs Turner were...” her voice trailed off as her mind worked frantically. That explained why people always looked at her, especially when she was with the Doctor. “So, the child?” she queried.

“Doctor Turner’s first wife died. It was so terrible. Timothy has taken to Shelagh very well, and she to him, from what I can tell”

“Gosh. When did his first wife pass away?”

“Oh, now let me think. Well, maybe two, two and a half years ago. And to answer your next questions, they’ve been married almost six months, and nothing actually happened until after she had left the Order. There was absolutely no impropriety; Doctor Turner is an absolute gentleman, and Shelagh would never have betrayed her vows. She used to help Sister Julienne out a lot with the paperwork, the administration, that side of things, so she knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s just not doing it in a Habit and Wimple any more”.

Sister Winifred sensed that Nurse Franklin felt she was prying, “oh, please don’t mistake me. I wasn’t prying for gossip, I just, I just had no idea. I was worried that, as competent as Mrs Turner actually is, she would have no idea of the more particular requirements of Nonnatus. I see now I was wrong. Thank you for correcting me”. Sister Winifred smiled at Nurse Franklin, and the scowl which had been developing on the Nurses’ face faded instead to a tight-lipped smile. 

“Yes, well, I can see that you were just concerned for Sister Julienne and the Order. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a letter to write to Nurse Lee. And just a word of caution – some feelings are still a bit raw, both amongst your other Sisters, and with some of our patients. It would be best not to mention this little chat to anyone else. If you’re agreeable?”

Sister Winifred felt the challenge in Trixie’s question. She had trusted her with private and important information. It would be too much to say it had been gossip, it had been a straight-forward laying out of the facts – and plainly everyone else already knew them. “Of course, Nurse Franklin, thank you for apprising me of the facts. I will keep my own counsel on these matters.”

The two parted, Trixie drifting upstairs to write her letter, Sister Winifred to clean and prepare her equipment, ready for her next call out. She considered everything she had just been told, and understood, a few days later, why the Doctor’s wife seemed to fit in so effortlessly in the building. The confusion lifted, she understood then that a book should not be judged by its cover, for one could never tell the secrets which lay hidden within.


End file.
